This blog will be a place to post poetry written by people living with Alzheimer's disease. We will focus on poetry that is created as part of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project. We will post information and news about dementia.
We hope this blog is of use to the family members who have a loved one with dementia.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

I had the pleasure of meeting New York artist Michele Brody at Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Here is an image of her Tea House Quilt.

She has people write on over-sized tea bags, poems, stories, musings. Yesterday Brody attended the poetry workshop at Park Slope Geriatric with the idea that in the fall we will collaborate having people living with dementia participate in creating a quilt. We experimented with passing around tins of tea and letting the group describe the scent. We created a poem on our favorite beverages and on sharing meals and drinks with family and friends.

Like many artists Brody has a multitude of ideas and has a wide range of interesting projects up and running. One of her most fascinating projects is her Nature Preserve. Also, like most artists she is seeking funding you may read about the project and find out how to help out here:

To raise funds for her work she is using United States Artist. This type of social media funding site like Kickstarter is becoming more popular and is worth checking into is you are not already familiar with them. I encourage you to check out and support the project.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Paul Rabinowitz, Director of Arts! by the People is a truly inspiring person. I had the great pleasure last year of of working with him and his artists. The group he has put together reflects his passion and drive. It was a treat to get an email today detailing the work he has been doing with the Lester House Poets in New Jersey. Here is Paul's program lesson, the artwork that they used and the poem the artwork inspired. Paul writes:

"At our Friday poetry session our senior citizens of Lester Housing experimented with ekphrastic writing. Ekphrasis is the graphic, often dramatic description of a visual work of art. We read ekphrastic poems inspired by Edward Hopper's, Nighthawks and Pablo Picasso's, Man with a Blue Guitar. It turned out to be a fascinating session because of the abstract nature of our dialogue.

They decided to title the poem [untitled]. An abstract idea in itself! They wanted to add their own free form lines to introduce the work.

At the end of the class I revealed to them that the artist is their fine arts instructor, Willie Baez.

A big thanks to Willie for introducing me to this unique form of expression and for lending us the artwork. Also a big thanks to Stacy Osei-Kuffour for helping out and transcribing."

[Untitled]

Reflections,

life,

dreams,

a man for all seasons,

tightly interconnected random thoughts.

When I look at this painting

I see above me and below me and side to side slowly

I see nature and food and plants and good things to smell and eat

I see a dreamer; I see things he might like to do

I see life, food, flowers, dreams; what makes the world

I see balance in one's life

I see reflections things past and present

Created by the seniors at Lester Housing in our Talking Poetry Class, June 03, 2011
More about Arts! by the People at:

Gary Glazner

Sparking Memories: The Alzheimer's Poetry Project Anthology

The anthology has 75 of the poems we use in the project.Essays on how to use poetry to connect with people living with dementia, on why care giving matters, and on the medical implications of using poetry.More info at:http://www.alzpoetry.com

Nútreme Hoy (Nurture me today)

Our new Spanish language anthology contains: essays on how to use poetry to connect to people living with dementia, and how to create a poetry program, as well as poems and Dichos.More info at http://www.alzpoetry.com